It’s more than a little interesting the way that the trio Rooms dove into two separate, very different recording sessions, then grafted them one onto the other, later, in the studio. Session A was all about the generation of sound with the only goal that it be something different, something unusual and absolutely no requirement that it resemble a song. The second recording session of Vigil was a straight-forward piano trio set, recorded as such and complete with the kind of compositions and improvisations one would expect. But it’s the result of their laboratory experiments in the edit stage where the intrigue is generated.

There are tracks where the source material is the dominant trait. Opening track “Introduction” has a ghostly presence with an emphasis on ambiance over form, whereas a track like “Scumbag” hits straight-ahead territory with its walking bassline and melodic phrases fluttering like Autumn leaves from the branches above. The cross-pollination between the two recording sessions is subtle at most. But it’s on tracks like “Monolith” and “One” where the spirit of the album really comes out. The influence of both recording sessions, experimental and straight-ahead, reveal themselves completely, and the abrupt, almost crude way the trio fuses them together is a fascinating display of the beauty that can come from conflict and the wonderment found at the axis where contrast and commonality meet.